And adding to the good feelings: Illumina shares bounced back from their earlier drops, ending the session up 1.2% at $44.51, showing investors do have confidence in the future that now appears to be lacking Roche.

Here’s Flatley’s memo to employees, which was disclosed in a securities filing.

Hi everyone,

Today Illumina announced that, based on a preliminary vote count provided by our proxy solicitor, stockholders have re-elected by a wide margin all four of our director nominees at the Annual Meeting. In addition, Illumina stockholders rejected the four other stockholder proposals submitted by Roche Holding Ltd. For more information, please see the attached press release.

Based on these preliminary results, the Roche director nominees received votes representing only about 6% of shares outstanding. This is a true testament to the confidence our stakeholders have in our ability to create compelling value as we continue to execute against our strategic plan and expand our leadership position in the industry.

While we must note that these results are only preliminary, we are confident they will be certified within a few days by the independent inspector of election. Final results will be announced when the results are certified complete.

In light of the stockholder vote, Roche indicated today that it has decided not to extend its tender offer for Illumina, which expires on April 20th.

Illumina is proud of its longstanding reputation of excellence, and on behalf of the Board of Directors and our management team, I want to thank you again for your good work and important contributions to Illumina. We appreciate your ongoing dedication and support – as long as we keep innovating and delivering, we will continue to be successful.

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